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THE 



AMERICAN WAR. 



Bt NEWMAN HALL, LL.D. 



% Wtthxxz, 



DELIVERED IN LONDON. OCTOBER 20, 1862. 



l^. 



ISTEW YORK: 

AXSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 

G83 BROADWAY. 

1862. 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 



By NEWMAN HALL, LL.D, 



> 



A LECTURE, DELIVERED IN LONDOJST, 

OCTOBER 20, 1862. 




NEW YORK : 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 

No. 683 BROADWAY. 

1862. 



fss 



t 

.HlfS 



EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 

^Drinter & Sttrrtitaprr, 
Nil 2C) NoitTH AViLUAM St. 



THE AMERICAN "WAR. 



In this lecture I propose briefly to trace the course of 
American history in relation to the present war, and then 
to reply to the questions — Had the South a right to se- 
cede ? Is the North justified in waging war to restore 
the Union ? How far is the question of Slavery mixed 
up with the quarrel ? On which side should the sympa- 
thy of England be enlisted ? 

HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

The quarrel between the North and the South, though 
it has only just developed in war, is of long growth. 
There are physical differences of climate, causing differ- 
ences of labor, of production, of commercial interests, 
and of character. Added to this, we must bear in mind 
the original difference between the colonists. Tlie North 
was peopled chiefly by the puritan and republican party, 
escaping from the tyranny of the Stuart kings. The 
South was peopled chiefly by the cavalier, aristocratic, 
and monarchical party. The result of the combined ac- 
tion of difference in the original settlers, and difference 
in the physical features of the countries occupied, was 
imavoidable. Moreover, emigration naturally flowed 

(3) 



4 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

more to the North, as better suited for the energies of 
Europeans. The labor market of the South was supplied 
by tlie importation of Negro slaves. This increased the 
difference between the North and the South. In the 
North, partly from motives of political economy, still 
more from a deeply-rooted love of freedom and from re- 
ligious considerations, slavery was gradually abolished, 
while in the South it rapidly increased. Thus, from the 
beginning, the North and South were different in charac- 
ter, with interests which from being not identical, eventu- 
ally became antagonistic. 

The colonies, having revolted from Great Britain, were 
constituted as tlie United States, and on July 4, 1776, 
the famous Declaration of Independence was issued. The 
fundamental principle of the Union was this — that while 
imited with the other States for general national objects, 
each State retained its own sovereign right to regulate 
its separate affairs. The Union, as such, miglit deal with 
commerce, taxation for national purposes, peace and war, 
foreign relations, and the territories belonging to the 
States in common ; but it could not, as a Union, in any 
way interfere with the local taxation and expenditure, or 
tlie domestic institutions of the several States composing 
that Union. 

Each State was to send two members to tlie Senate, or 
Upper House of Congress. And for every 33,000 of 
population, subsequently raised to 120,000, one member 
was to be sent to tlie Lower House, or House of Hepre- 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 5 

sentatives. It is evident that those districts which most 
increased in population would enlarge their power in 
Congress, by the increased number of their representa- 
tives. Though the Soutli increased, the ratio of increase 
was much greater in the North. Thus, while originally 
Virginia sent ten members as compared with six from 
New York, now, Virginia sends eleven members, while 
New York sends thirty. Thus the power which rested 
originally with the South, has gone over to the North by 
the operation of natural causes and in accordance with 
the constitution. But tliis transfer, in every stage of its 
process, has increased the rivalry between North and 
South. 

The States forming the original Union were thirteen. 
The thinly occupied districts where as yet there was no 
sufficient population for self-government, were called Ter- 
ritories, and, as tlie common property of the Union were 
governed by Congress. A certain amount of population 
was a qualification for the Territories to claim admission 
as new States. As each State sent two members to the 
Senate, it soon became a question of importance whether 
the State applying for admission would strengthen the 
interests of the North, or those of the South. This de- 
pended on whether the new State was a Slave State or 
a Free. The original desire and intention of the foun- 
ders of the Union was to get rid of slavery altogether. 
This was seen in the decree of Congress in 1787, forbid- 
ding slavery in any of the territories N. W. of the river 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 



Ohio ; as- well as by the gradual abolition of slavery in 
the several Northern States, by the action of their respec- 



tive governments. 



In 1820, a great struggle took place on the question of 
the admission of Missouri. This district formed part of 
the territory of Louisiana, where slavery existed when it 
was purchased from France in 1803. " If admitted, it 
must be as Free,^^ said the North ; " because it is N. W. 
of the Ohio, and therefore subject to the law of 1787." 
" If admitted, it must be as Slave" said the South ; " be- 
cause in fact, slavery exists there already." Agreement 
was brought about by what is called the Ilissouri Com- 
2)romise. Missouri was admitted as a Slave-State ; but 
it was decreed that slavery should not be allowed in any 
State hereafter to be annexed above a certain geograph- 
ical line ; viz., 36° 30' N. Latitude. South of that limit, 
the question might be determined by the inhabitants of 
the district ; in American phrase it was left to " Squatter 
Sovereignty." 

In 1832, another fierce controversy arose. There had 
been during many years a conflict of interests in relation 
to tariffs. During war Avith Great Britain no manufac- 
tures were imported. The demand had to be supplied 
by home produce. Factories sprang up in the North. 
Wlien peace was proclaimed, and British goods threat- 
ened to deluge tlie market, a high protective duty was 
put on them ])y the United States Government, in the 
interest of their own manufactures. But these manufac- 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 7 

turers were Northerners. The produce of the South was 
agricultural only. There were advocates of both systems 
in the Slave States and in the Free. Yet for the most 
part the North became protectionists, while the South 
were cliiefly in favor of free-trade. A high tariff in 1832 
caused great discontent in South Carolina, which State 
proceeded to pass an act of " Nullification," refusing to 
obey the laws of the united government. Their opposi- 
tion was yielded to, and a modified tariff hastily adopted, 
in order to preserve the Union from the threatened dan- 
ger of dismemberment. But on that occasion, President 
Jackson, in his annual " message" protested that " The 
right of a single State to absolve themselves from the 
most solemn obligations cannot be acknowledged." 

Another contention arose in connection Avitli Texas, 
which was a province of Mexico, where slavery had been 
abolished. A land of freedom in their close neighborhood 
was a grievance to the Southerners. So, a party of them 
entered Texas, fomented an insurrection, and raised the 
standard of revolt. The Mexican army was defeated, 
and the Southerners demanded that Texas should be rec- 
ognized and admitted as a new and Slave State. Their 
cry was " Texas or disunion." Long discussions arose, 
terminating in the admission of Texas, and consequently 
a war with Mexico. 

Slaves were continually escaping from the southern 
into the northern States. Here, by the constitution, they 
were not safe, as-the southern masters might claim and 



8 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

take back their " property." But there were many thor- 
ough friends of freedom, who, preferring God's laws to 
any constitutional enactments, were always ready to pro- 
tect thci fugitive, or convey him safely to Canada. The 
Southerners complained of the inadequacy of the existing 
laws to secure their property ; and on their demand, the 
odious " Fugitive Slave Law" was passed, by which tlie 
local authorities were enjoined to aid in the capture and 
i*endition of run-away slaves. The terror caused by this 
law swept like a hurricane through the North. It took 
effect on the best examples of the Negro race. In one 
colored church, 130 members at once fled to Canada. In 
another, of 114 members, only two remained. The law 
had not passed without angry controversy, and vehement 
protests. From many a pulpit the congregation were 
exhorted to obey God rather than man. Furious riots 
were caused by attempts to carry back into slavery ne- 
groes who for years had been respected for their industry, 
virtue, and godliness. This still further increased the 
alienation between North and South. 

In 1856, Mr. Sumner, an eloquent opponent of slavery, 
was sitting in his place in the House of Representatives, 
when a pro-slavery member named Brooks, incensed by 
a recent speech of Mr. Sumner, came behind him, and 
with a heavy stick, beat him on the neck and back of his 
head, so that he fell stunned and did not recover for sev- 
eral months. We cannot even conceive of such an outrage 
in our own House of Commons. Any man acting in such a 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 9 

way would be scouted by the whole nation, and if he pro- 
fessed our particular opinions, we should regard him as 
the greatest scandal and foe to our party. But what took 
place in the Southern States ? Brooks was extolled as a 
hero ! While the only penalty awarded by the law was 
a trumpery fine, the ladies of South Carolina presented 
liini with a richly mounted cane ; from several cities he 
received presentation sticks inscribed — " Hit him again ;" 
and after his deatli, a speaker in Congress publicly com- 
pared him to Brutus! Such an outrage, so rewarded, 
was a still further aggravation of the social feud. 

The " Dred Scott decision " added fresh combustibles 
to the smouldering heap. Dread Scott, a slave, taken 
by his master into free Illinois, and then beyond the line 
of 36° 30^, and then back into Missouri, sued for and 
obtained his freedom on the ground that having been 
taken where by the constitution slavery was illegal, his 
master had lost all claim. But the Supreme Court on 
appeal reversed the judgment, and Dred Scott with his 
wife and children was taken back into slavery. By this 
decision in the highest court of American law it was 
affirmed that no free nes-ro could claim to be a citizen of 
the United States, but was only under the jurisdiction 
of the separate State in which he resided : that the pro- 
])ibition of slavery in any territory of tlie Union vras 
unconstitutional : and that the slave-owner might go 
where he pleased with his property, throughout the 
United. States, and retain his right. The progress of^ 



10 THE AMERICAN V/AR. 

the trial was attended with great excitement, and the 
final decision convulsed society throughout the North. 

Kansas was long a cause of disquiet. Was it to be 
received as a Free State, or was it to be claimed by 
Slavery? Companies of Free-soilers settled there. 
But organized bands of ruffians from the South entered 
it, and by numberless acts of violence endeavored to 
expel the friends of freedom. In these encounters mucli 
blood was shed. You remember that, in 1859, John 
Brown, who, with his sons, had been very active in these 
struggles, seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry for tlie 
purpose of facilitating the escape of slaves in the neigh- 
borhood. His well-intended and heroic, but ill-advised 
and illegal enterprise failed. He was tried and sen- 
tenced to be hung. No northern statesman nor party 
was proved to have liad any connection with the aff'air. 
But the excitement produced was very great. A vast 
array of soldiery was drawn up to prevent a rescue. 
The South was determined to secure its victim. A 
woman was among tlie competitors for the executioner's 
office, and several States vied Avith one another for the 
privilege of providing the hemp for tlie halter. 

The crisis was now at hand. In order to understand 
it we must bear in mind that in the North tliere are 
tliree parties. Tlie Republicans, or Federals, uphold the 
constitution as it is; and wliatever reforms are required, 
they would accomplish only by the working out of its 
established principles ; they would not interfere with 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 



11 



the affairs of individual States ; but they are opposed to 
the extension of slavery into the Territories. This ren- 
ders them antagonistic to the Southerners. Moreover, 
they are protectionists in commerce. The Democrats 
are the opposition party, and are in favor of Free-trade. 
This formed tlie first link of sympathy betv.^een them 
and the Southerners. "Evil communications corrupt 
good manners ;" and so it came to pass that the North- 
ern Liberal, contradicting his own principles of freedom, 
became an ally of the Southern Slave-owner, not only in 
commerce but in slavery too. The Republican party is 
Anti-slavery, but this term in America implies only 
opposition to the extension of slavery into new soil. 
The Abolition party advocate its entire overthrow. 
Some of them would accomplish this gradually: but 
others have earnestly contended that it is a first duty to 
get rid of so great a wickedness, even at the cost of 
national existence, and that it would be better that the 
Union be at once dissolved than that slavery should any 
longer defile the land. Owing to the weakening of the 
North by this opposition between the Abolitionists and 
Republicans, the South has succeeded, by its alliance with 
the Democrats, in carrying nearly all elections for the 
office of President. But when Buchanan was elected, 
the Anti-slavery Fremont so nearly won thp day that 
the South began to take measures in ei^pectation of a 
reverse at the election of I860. 

The agreement of Abolitionists and Republicans iii 



12 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 



the nomination of Abraham Lincohi secured his election. 
His history is remarkable. His father died when he 
was a child. He had only six months' schooling. When 
a little hoy he earned his own living by wielding an axe, 
driving a cart, shepherding flocks, and afterwards work- 
ing on a river-steamer. Then he took to rail-splitting, 
and tlien was clerk in a store, all the while educating 
himself. He was chosen a member of the parliament 
of his State ; then became a barrister ; then was sent 
to Congress. An avowed opponent of slavery, he was 
adopted by tlie Abolitionists. Pledging himself to abide 
by constitutional law, and under that law to prevent the 
extension of slavery into the Territories, he was adopted 
by the Eepublicans. 

The election of 1860 placed him by a large majority 
at the head of the poll. The news no sooner reached 
Charleston than the Federal flag was hauled down, and 
that of the State run up in its place. At a great meet- 
ing it was resolved that as the North had elected a 
president whose opinions and purposes were liostile to 
Slavery, South Carolina seceded from the Union. A 
Federal fort was seized, and the Federal Major Ander- 
son retired to Fort Sumter. Other States soon followed 
the example of South Carolina, and preparations were 
made for war. 

But before Mr. Lincoln came into office, treason in the 
cabinet had been ])romoting the secession. Mr. Toucey, 
in the navy department, had dispersed the fleets, and 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 13 

Mr. Floyd, in the army department, had transferred 
military stores to Southern arsenals, appropriated public 
moneys, and put Southern partizans into offices of tinist. 
Thus the Southerners gained a great advantage at the 
breaking out of the Avar, having possession of govern- 
ment propert}'', and being able to carry forward their 
designs for some time unchecked. 

The first act of war was the firing into a Federal 
steamer while carrying supplies to Fort Sumter, in Jan- 
uary, 1861. In March the new President was inaugu- 
rated. In his address he declared that he had no law- 
ful right and no inclination to interfere with slavery 
where it existed, and that he would maintain inviolate 
the rights of each State to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own judgment. 
But this had no effect in staying the progress of seces- 
sion. In April Fort Sumter was bombarded, and Vir- 
ginia joined the Confederacy. In July occurred the 
Federal defeat at Bull Bun ; in August the indecisive 
battle at Sprin.gfield ; in September the Federal victory 
at Somerville ; in October the Confederate victory at 
Leesburg. In November took place the affair of the 
Trent. Thank God that we were then preserved from 
being carried into the strife ! 

The present year 1862 opened amidst mutual prepara- 
tion for continued conflict. In February Fort Donel- 
son and the city of Nashville was taken by the Federals. 
In March the Confederate Ram Merrimac destrovcd two 



14 THE AMEraCAN \YAE. 

Federal ships at the mouth of the James river. In 
April Island No. 10 surrendered to the Federals, and 
New Orleans fell into the hands of General Butler. 
During April and May many fierce battles were fought 
before Richmond. In June the besieging army suffered 
a sanguinary defeat ; after wliich McClellan changed his 
base of operations, but was soon compelled to i-etire 
altogether from the Confederate capital, leaving behind 
him the bodies of tens of thousands who had perished 
either in battle or from pestilence. By rapid marches, 
the Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson were enabled 
to attack the Federal army under Pope before his junc- 
tion with McClellan, and on August 29, the Confederates 
gained their second victory of Bull Run. The Federal 
army then retreated beyond tlie Potoma^c, and fell back 
on Washington. The Confederates entered Maryland 
and advanced towards Baltimore ; but not receiving from 
the Marylanders the support they expected, and being 
severely handled by McClellan, they recrossed the Poto- 
mac into Virginia. After spending several hundred 
millions of pounds sterling, and after sacrificing several 
liundred thousands of precious lives, the two great 
armies still confront each other. A civil war on sucli a 
scale, the world has never witnessed. Humanity stands 
aghast at the contemplation of it. Piety lifts up lier 
liands in supplication and says — " How long, Lord, 
how lono:!" 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 15 



HAD THE SOUTH A RIGHT TO SECEDE? 

If they had, it was either a constitutional or a revolu- 
tionary right. Had they a constitutional right ? If so, 
this was derived either from the fundamental principles 
of all government, or from the peculiar constitution of 
the United States. Do the fundamental principles of 
government give the right to any section of a nation at 
its own option to secede from that nation? If a 
province may do this, so may a county, so may a town. 
Scotland, Wales, Ireland, might severally separate from 
Great Britain ; then Yorkshire, or Surrey, or this bor- 
ough of Southwark ! There could be no such thing as 
nationality were such secession to be recognized as law- 
ful. What security would there be for the payment of 
debts incurred by the nation, if any portion of that 
nation might, by secession, escape its share of the lia- 
bility? Who would advance money on such terms? 
What dependence could be placed on any national 
engagement ? In case of war, tlie province or city most 
threatened might secede and make a separate treaty 
with the foe, or declare its neutrality ; and where then 
would be national safety? The claim of an integral 
part of an empire, when union appears to itself no longer 
desirable, to secede without the general consent of the 
empire of which it forms a part, is destructive to all 
nationalitv. 



1^ THE AMERICAN WAR. 

But does the peculiar constitution of the United States 
give a special right of secession ? It has been main- 
tained that the several States composing the Union, 
reta^in their individual sovereignty. They have their 
local governors and parliaments, and as by their own 
decree they originally joined the Union, so, it is said, by 
a reversal of that decree, they may separate. If so, as 
we have just shown, the United States never constituted 
a nation. To unite with such an understanding was not 
to unite. A constitution witli such a proviso would be 
self-destructive. 

If one State may secede from tiie rest, it is obvious 
that two States may agree to do tlie same. Therefore 
also a majority may agree to secede from the minority. 
Therefore also all the States but one, may combine to 
secede from that one. That is to say, according to this 
notion, any single State may at any time be expelled 
from the Union without its own consent. This unavoid- 
ably follows from the right of any single State to secede. 
Again we say that a constitution with such a proviso 
would be self-destructive. 

It is not the fact that the States retained their sove- 
reign rights uncurtailed. They retained those in respect 
of which they did not combine : but those wliich tliey 
surrendered as individual States and handed over to tlie 
central Government, they liad no longer any right to 
exercise. General taxation for general purposes, coin- 
age, postage, tariffs, peace and war, treaties with foreign 



THE AMERICAN WAR. IT 

powers — these were prerogatives merged in the Union 
by the individual States, and could not therefore be re- 
sumed except by general consent of the contracting par- 
ties. The second of the " Articles of Confederation " 
declares that every State retains its sovereignty, and 
every right ivMch is not by this Confederation especially 
delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. 
Obviously therefore these delegated rights can no longer 
be claimed. Article Y. says that no two or more States 
shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance 
whatever between them, without consent of the United 
States in Congress assembled. But the southern States 
have done this. They have there rebelled. The con- 
stitution of 1787 (Art. III. Sec. 3.) declares that treason 
against the United States consists in levying war against 
them or adhering to their enemies. In levying war 
against the Federal Government, the southern States 
are therefore, according to the constitution, traitors and 
rebels. 

But where there is no constitutional right of secession, 
there may be a rational right of rebellion. In case of 
glaring abuse of power by the executive, where gross 
injustice has been perpetrated, where tyranny is unen- 
durable, then the ultimate right of rebellion must be 
conceded. Thus we rejoice in the recent revolutions in 
Italy : thus we boast of our own " Glorious Revolution " 
to which Queen Victoria owes her throne. Had the 
southern States such a plea ? It is sometimes said, that 



18 THE AMERICxVX WAR. 

as the American colonies seceded from Great Britain, so 
the South may secede from the Xorth. The colonies 
seceded because they were oppressed, and taxed without 
being represented. But the South were not oppressed, 
were not unrepresented. They formed a constituent 
part of the government. In fact they had a greater 
proportionate share in tlie representation than the Xorth. 
In the North, population alone determined the fran- 
chise, one member being allotted to every 120,000. 
Persons alone were represented, not property. But in 
the South, in addition to persons, property was allowed 
to send members to Congress. Slaves are by the law 
not persons but mere chattels. Of course they have no 
votes. Nevertheless, five slaves in the South are rec- 
koned as equal to three free whites, in order to increase 
the number of representatives. Estimating the slaves 
at four millions, these would count for 2,400,000 of popu- 
lation, entitling to twenty representatives. Estimating 
the free population of the South at 6,000,000, their quota 
of members is fifty. But by the addition of the property 
qualification they can send 70. Thus tlie value of a 
Southern vote exceeds tliat of a Northern in the propor- 
tion of 70 to 50 ; i. c, is equal to one vote and two- 
fiftlis. So that five voters in the South have as much 
influence as seven voters in the North. They could not 
therefore, maintaining as they do that the slaves are not 
persons but mere chattels, complain of not being allowed 
a fair sliare in the re|)rcscntation. 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 19 

Nor could tliey aver that they had been tyrannically 
overborne by the North. On the contrary, the North 
had habitually deferred to them, as we have seen in the 
admission of Missouri as a slave State contrary to the 
act of limitation ; in altering the tariff on the demand of 
South Carolina ; in the admission of Texas, and in pass- 
ing the Fugitive Slave Law. Moreover, the South had 
almost always, through alliance with their democrat 
sympathizers in the North, secured their own candidate 
for the presidential chair. As long as by securing a 
majority in Congress they ruled the country, they upheld 
the Union. As soon as they were in a decided minority 
and saw the sceptre transferred to their rivals, they 
seceded. How can any committee work, any society 
hold together, any government be carried on, unless the 
minority yield to the majority ? If we submit to laws 
only so long as our own opinions prevail, what is such 
submission worth ? Power had changed sides, not 
through violence, but simply by the operation of natural 
causes, and in accordance with the constitution. As 
soon as the Southerners found themselves outvoted, before 
the new ruler had performed one official act, before he 
was even inaugurated, while yet their own President 
retained office, without the plea that any law had been 
broken, without resorting to any legal method of redress, 
they threw off their allegiance, and in so doing violated 
the constitution to which they had sworn, on a plea sub- 
versive of the fundamental principles of national exis- 



20 THE AMERICA:?^ WAR. 

tence. They are therefore rebels, rebels moreover des- 
titute of the only plea by which rebellion can be justified. 



II. 

IS THE NORTH JUSTIFIED IX WAGING WAR TO RESTORE 
THE UNION? 

The answer is already given. Putting aside abstract 
peace principles, if the South rebelled, the North was 
justified in resisting the rebellion. If the South at- 
tacked the government the government had a right of 
self-defence. If national existence is desirable, should 
not whatever threatens it be resisted ? Is it not the 
right, is it not the duty of a government to guard the 
trust committed to it, and sustain its own authority ? 
What is evident on general principles, is expressly pro- 
vided for by the Constitution of the United States which, 
declares (Art. I. sec. 8) that Congress has power to call 
out the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to sujy- 
jpress insurrection and to repel invasion. 

It is urged as a complaint against the North that they 
are fighting for empire. How much more should the 
South be condemned, '' avIio having always before suc- 
ceeded in domineering, break off from the Union at the 
first moment that they can domineer no longer !'' The 
North fight for empire ! Of course they do — but to con- 
serve tlieir own, not to extend by seizing anotlier's. 
Self preservation is tlie first of instincts. Of all nations 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 21 

in the world Great Britain should be the last to con- 
demn it. Let the battle-fields of India testify how 
many bloody wars we have waged, not simply for the 
preservation, but for the extension of empire. Would 
not our government engage in any war at once, however 
costly and sanguinary, rather than submit to its forcible 
dismemberment? The Americans have an empire of 
whicli they may well be proud, so vast in area, so varied 
in its productions, so inexhaustible in wealth, so unparal- 
leled in progress. They have special motives for pre- 
serving it one and indivisible. If divided, there will be 
great difficulty in settling territorial limits. Commerce 
may bo injured by varying and hostile tariffs. The prin- 
ciple of disintegration may develop until there are num- 
berless rival republics. There would be frequent strife 
between themselves, and peril from foreign foes. Stand- 
ing armies would be required, and heavy taxation to 
maintain them. We cannot be surprised that the Fede- 
ral government should exercise its undoubted right, and 
fight to avoid these perils and preserve a Union under 
which their nation has become so great. 

We may have our own opinion as regards the expedi- 
ency of the war. We may think that the North and the 
South are so incompatible in character and interest, that 
a permanent union between them is impossible. We may 
think that the area embraced by the Secession is so vast 
that its subjugation is impossible. Looking on from tlie 
outside we may consider that although every Southern 



•22 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

port be blockaded, and victory crown the Federals in 
every fight, they can never hold the South by force of 
arms, and that if they could, such enforced union would 
be worthless. We may think that it would have been 
wise to have accepted the fact of Secession at the first, 
even as we may deem it inevitable in the end ; and that 
thus the lavish expenditure of treasure and of blood might 
have been spared. We may regard that expenditure as 
wasted, because unlikely to lead to any result ; and that 
even should the end be the restoration of the former 
Union, that end would not repay the cost. Implicated as 
the North have so long been in the crime of Southern 
slavery we may think it would have been better if they 
had said at once — " You are rebels — you deserve the se- 
verest chastisement — but if you choose to go, go ! — it will 
be your loss and our own inestimable gain — for hence- 
forth and for ever we are innocent of any participation 
in slavery — our land is now cleansed from the stain that 
has so long polluted it — no more recognition of property 
in man — no more Fugitive Slave Law — henceforth Can- 
ada is virtually brought to the banks of the Potomac, and 
every slave crossing the border, shall feel as safe under 
our star bespangled banner, as if the blended crosses of 
Great Britain waved above his liead." 

Perhaps the majority of Englishmen entertain such 
views as tliese respecting the expediency of the war. But 
there can be no doubt respecting its lawfulness, that is, 
granting the general right of governmcrits to wage war 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 23 

for national existence. And we cannot be surprised that 
the right shouhl be exercised in this case when Ave con- 
sider the grandeur of the empire to bo maintained, the 
special reasons why Americp.ns must desire its preserva- 
tion, the importance of checking, by this example of firm- 
ness, any similar attempts in future, and the sanguine 
hope of ultimate success wdiich a consciousness of Right 
imparts, and which is always felt by those who see much 
more of their own power than that of the foe. 



III. 



HOW FAR IS THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY INVOLVED IN 
THE STRUGGLE? 

The South seceded and took up arms in order to pre- 
serve and extend slavery. The immediate object of the 
North is the suppression of the rebellion and the preser- 
vation of the Union. But that resistance to slavery is 
the real cause of the war, and the promotion of freedom 
its ultimate tendency, seems to me most evident. 

Bear in mind that during many years the North and 
South have been struggling for supremacy, and that al- 
most all those struggles have had reference to slavery. 
The South ever sought to extend the slave territory and 
increase the pro-slavery influence in Congress. Tlie 
North ever strove to confine slavery to its original limits. 
The South maintained that every citizen had a right to 
go with his property to every part both of the States and 



24 THE AMEraCAX WAR. 

the Territories. The North maintained that Congress 
had tlie right to legislate for tlie Territories ; that in the 
exercise of tliat right it had decreed that slaver}- should 
not pass beyond a certain limit ; that human beings could 
not there be held as " proper t}' ;" and that while by the 
constitution, slavery could not be interfered with in the 
States where it existed, it should not spread further. On 
this question the Xorth and the South practically joined 
issue. 

The great Republican party are pledged to this Anti- 
Slavery policy. To carry it out, Abraham Lincoln was 
elected President. The Xorth were resolved that the 
long controversy should at length end, and the question 
be set at rest for ever. Henceforth all the world must 
know that the North would concede no more, and that 
slavery should make no further advance. But the South 
were equally resolved to extend it. For this and this 
alone tliey took up arms. They did not allege as their 
plea hostile tariffs or illegal oppression, but, as we shall 
see, the opposition of tlie North to their favorite institu- 
tion. Had tlie North been fighting only for empire, they 
could have secured the object without the cost of war, 
simply by yielding this point to the South. But they re- 
fused to do so. Wliile then their immediate object in the 
war was to suppress the rebellion, it is evident that their 
purpose also was to prevent the extension of slavery. 

But in preventing tlie extension of slavery, the North 
believed they were promoting the gradual but ultimate 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 25 

extinction of slavery itself. It is admitted that slavery 
needs scope for development, and that if restrained 
within narrow limits it destroys itself. To be remun- 
erative, many laborers must be concentrated and kept to 
one kind of work, thus exhausting the soil and needing 
new fields. The South urge this as a plea for secession. 
" There is not a slaveholder," said Judge Warner, of 
Georgia, " in this house or out of it, but who knows 
perfectly well that whenever slavery is confined within 
certain specified limits its future existence is doomed ; 
it is only a question of time as to its final destruction. 
You may take any single slaveholding county in the 
southern States, in which the great staples of cotton and 
sugar are cultivated to any extent, and confine the pre- 
sent slave population within the limits of that county. 
Such is the rapid natural increase of the slaves, and the 
rapid exhaustion of the soil in the cultivation of those 
crops (which add so much to the commercial wealth of 
the country), that in a few years it would be impossible 
to support them within the limits of such county. Both 
master and slave would be starved out ; and what would 
be the practical effect in any one county, the same result 
would happen to all the slaveholding States. Slavery 
cannot be confined within certain limits without produ- 
cing the destruction of both master and slave ; it re- 
quires fresh lands, plenty of wood and water, not only 
for the comfort and hapi)iness of the slave, but for the 
benefit of the owner." The North tell us they are fight- 
2 



26 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

iug for the ultimate suppression of slavery by constitu- 
tional means. Some people do not give them credit for 
this. Let us then receive the testimony of their enemies. 
Surely we should believe the Nortli when they tell us 
tliey intend to do what the South complain of as the 
inevitable effect of their policy. 

It is often asked, Why did not the North at the first 
proclaim a war of freedom ? There have always been a 
band of witnesses in America who have declared that it 
would be better for the Constitution to perish and the 
Union to be dissolved, than that such monstrous wicked- 
ness as slavery should be tolerated. But the abolition- 
ists have been in a minority, and were always outvoted 
by the Republican party, who, while opposed to slavery, 
-were, determined to abide by the Constitution. The 
union of a majority of the Abolitionists with Republi- 
cans in the election of Mr. Lincoln, has turned the scale 
against the South. But this has been done on the ex- 
press understanding that the Constitution is to be adhered 
to. AYar is waged with the South for violating it ; the 
North, in quelling the rebellion, is bound to observe the 
laws for wliich they figlit. 

At the risk of repetition I must draw your attention 
once more to the fundamental principle of the Constitu- 
tion, whicli forbids Congress to interfere with the domes- 
tic institutions of the several States. Mr. Lincoln took 
a solemn oath on entering his office, to observe this Con- 
stitution. He pledged himself again and again that he 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 27 

would be faithful to this principle. He cannot, as an 
honest man, use his power as president except as allowed 
by tlie laws. But in accordance with those laws, the 
Government, of which he is the head, has already done 
much towards the final triumph of freedom. 

Considering how slowly nations move, how tardy is 
the general progress of reformation, the following acts 
form no trifling result of less than two years' adminis- 
tration. Slavery has been formally forbidden in all the 
Territories of the Union. Slavery has been abolished . 
in the District of Columbia, over which Congress has 
power by the Constitution. Compensation has also been 
offered from the treasury of the United States, to any 
separate State which shall emancipate its slaves. A 
treaty has been entered into with Great Britain for the 
more efi'ectual suppression of the Slave trade. And where- 
ever the Northern armies go, fugitive slaves are received 
in large numbers. As many as 60,000 are said to have 
escaped from Missouri alone, and 80,000 from Virginia. 
At Port Royal 10,000 are protected by the Federal flag 
within a few miles of Charleston. Above all, the Presi- 
dent has proclaimed that after the first of January, the 
slaves in all States continuing in rebellion shall be de- 
clared free, and that the power of the United States 
government shall be employed in accomplishing such 
emancipation. 

Many people in England object to this proclamation. 
They say — " Why was it not issued at first, on the 



28 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

ground of principle, and not after a period of ineffectual 
conflict, as a mere exigency of war ? And why proclaim 
liberty only to the slaves of rebels, thus compelling to 
do right to the negro, those who do wrong to the gov- 
ernment ; and rewarding those who do right to the 
government, with the power of continuing to do wrong 
to their slaves ?" It must again be remembered that 
President Lincoln was restrained by the laws he was 
sworn to administer, from interfering with the domestic 
institutions of the several States. The most he can do 
is to offer compensation. He cannot himself emanci- 
pate. But what he cannot do at all in any loyal State, 
nor by ordinary law in any rebel State, he can do in his 
military capacity, when required by the exigencies of 
war. He is restrained by the Constitution from abolish- 
ing slavery because he thinks it impolitic or wicked. 
This is a question for each State to decide. But in quell- 
ing a rebellion he may use whatever means become 
necessary for sustaining the government. With the 
slaves as laborers, the white population of the Soutli are 
disengaged for the war. Proclaim freedom to those 
slaves, and they will either escape, or the Southern army 
will be crippled by the large numbers needed to guard 
them. It is on tliis ground that the President justifies 
his proclamation as being in accordance with law. He 
is Ijlamcd for doing tliat which alone he considered 
within his power ; while that which lie is censured for 
not doing, was impossible without breaking his oath and 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 29 

violating the Constitution. Feeling strongly, but not 
too strongly, the monstrous wickedness of slavery, and 
not experiencing the difficulties of Mr. Lincoln's position, 
it is natural we should think that had we his power, we 
would at the first have declared slavery to be sinful, and 
fought against it on the highest and holiest grounds. 
Had the North done this they would at once have re- 
ceived the sympathy of the friends of freedom through- 
out the world. But the abolitionists of America who 
wished to do this, were the minority and had not the 
power. It was surely better to take instalments of 
liberty than to get nothing. So they strengthened the 
Republican party against the Southerners, and if they 
did not advance as rapidly as they desired, were glad to 
advance at all. 

But is it not a grand advance ? No slavery in the 
Territories ! Compensation offered to all States remain- 
ing in the Union who will emancipate ! Several hun- 
dred thousand slaves already free ! And on the first of 
next January, all the slaves of rebel States free — the 
United States Government which formerly guaranteed 
them to their owners, now pledged to their emancipa- 
tion! After so many years during which slavery has 
seemed not only holding its own, but increasing in influ- 
ence, is it possible that Englishmen can view emancipa- 
tion advancing by marches so rapid, without delight and 
devout thankfulness? 

But whatever doubts may be entertained in reference 



30 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

to the sincerity of the Xorth in fighting against Slavery, 
there can be none as regards the sincerity of the South 
in fighting for it. They openly avow that their object 
is to perpetuate and extend this hateful system. When 
South Carolina seceded it stated as her reasons — that 
the North had denied the right of property in slaves, 
had pronounced the institution sinful, had permitted 
Abolition societies, had aided the escape of slaves, and 
had elected a president whose opinions were hostile to 
slavery. Tlie Richmond Inquirer vindicated the war 
on the ground that " the experiment of universal liberty 
has failed — the evils of free-society are insufferable — 
free-society is impracticable in the long run — it is every- 
where starving, demoralized and insurrectionary ; policy 
and humanity alike forbid the extension of its evils to 
new people and coming generations — and therefore free- 
society must fall and give way to a slave-society, a social 
system old as the world, universal as man." The Vice- 
President of the Southern Confederacy said — " Our new 
government is founded on the great truth that the negro 
is not equal to the white man ; that slavery is his 
natural and normal condition. Our new government is 
the first in the history of the world based on this great 
physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This stone 
Avhich was rejected by tlie first builders is become the 
cliief stone of tlie corner in our new edifice. Negro 
slavery is but in its infancy. We ouglit to increase and 
expand our institutions. All nations when they cease 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 31 

to grow begin to die. We should then endeavor to ex- 
pand and grow. Central America and Mexico are all 
open to us." Dr. Palmer, preaching at New Orleans, 
said — " The providential trust of the South is to per- 
petuate the institution of domestic slavery as now exist- 
ing, with freest scope for its natural development. We 
should at once lift ourselves intelligently to the highest 
moral ground, and proclaim to all the world that we hold 
this trust from God, and in its occupancy are prepared 
to stand or falL These slaves form part of our liouse- 
holds, even as our children. It is a duty we owe to 
ourselves, to our slaves, to tlie world, to Almighty God, to 
preserve and transmit our existing system of domestic 
servitude, with the right, unchallenged by man, to go and 
root itself wherever Providence and Nature may carry it." 
The conduct of the Southerners has been in accord- 
ance with this explicit avowal of their purpose. When 
they took Harper's Ferry they seized 2,000 negroes, 
many of whom were free, and marched them away to 
slavery. Tlie National (U. S.) Anti-Slavery Standard, 
of September 15th, says that a party of colored men sent 
to Manassas under a flag of truce to bury the dead we«re 
seized by the Confederates as soon as they had dis- 
cliarged their humane office and driven away to bondage. 
General Phelps reported that many negroes sought refuge 
in the Federal camp, loaded with chains and barbarous 
irons, deeply scored with lashes, or bleeding from bird- 
shot wounds. 



32 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

With sucli evidence as this, how absurd is the state- 
ment sometimes heard that slavery has nothing to do 
with this war ! Nothing to do with it, when but for 
slavery in the South, resisted in the North, the rebellion 
would never have broken out ? Nothing to do with it, 
when the Southerners avowedly declare that they fight 
to maintain and extend it ? Nothing to do with it, when 
tens of thousands in the Federal army would not draw a 
sword nor fire a shot but in the hope of now and for 
ever smiting down this Goliath of wickedness ? Noth- 
ing to do with it, when the Northern army liberates 
wherever it goes, while the Southerners drive to bondage 
all in whose veins is a trace of African blood ? Ask 
the multitudes who, since the war broke out have ob- 
tained their freedom, whether it has nothing to do with 
it ! It has everything to do with it. It is virtually, if 
not ostensibly, a war of Emancipation. The South, from 
the first, declared that it was so on the part of the 
North. We think it would have been well had the 
North as explicitly proclaimed it themselves. But 
whether so intended or not at the beginning, this it has 
now Ijecome by tlie inevitable progress of events. His- 
tory has no such conflict on the roll of Freedom's strug- 
gles. Never before was tyranny so terrible, contended 
for so openly, and on such a scale. Never before were 
millions of one race banded togetlier to fight to the 
death in defence of a claim to treat another race as mere 
cattle, and for the further right to spread this pestilence 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 33 

far and wide through the world, unchecked. Shall slav- 
ery continue to degrade millions of our fellow-creatures 
through future generations, and to extend its deadly 
influence over new empires — or shall it now receive its 
death-blow, the children of Africa be free, and America 
be delivered from what has so long marred her beauty, 
destroyed her peace, hindered her usefulness, and pro- 
voked the wrath of God ? This is the great issue now 
pending ! 

lY. 

ON WHICH SIDE SHOULD THE SYMPATHY OF ENGLAND BE 
ENLISTED ? 

There can be no hesitation as to the reply to this 
question. Our glorious history, the struggles of our 
forefathers, the memory of freedom's heroes whose names 
are household words, our equal laws, the emancipation 
of our own slaves, our open and inviolable asylum for 
fugitives from tyranny of every hue and from every land, 
our frequent remonstrances with our American brethren 
on this subject, our reiterated and unqualified condemna- 
tion of this great sin, our churches, our bibles, our pray- 
ers, all demand that every heart should beat in sympathy 
with those who are banded together to accomplish what 
we liave so long urged upon them, the total abolition of 
slavery throughout the empire. 

How then can we explain the apparent lack of this 
sympathy ? Partly by the prevailing ignorance and mis- 
2* 



34 THE AMERICA:^ WAR. 

conception respecting American affairs caused by the 
gross unfairness of our leading newspapers. Tlie Times 
especially, by letters to the editor, and one-sided narra- 
tives from correspondents, and clever leading articles, 
has systematically cast ridicule or condemnation on the 
North, while it has held up the South to admiration. 
But the suppression or perversion of truth secures only 
a temporary purpose, England's heart ever beats true 
to liberty, and her sympathy will be all the more 
emphatic from having been thus for a while restrained. 

Mere politicians think that it would be better for 
Europe that the great Republic of America should be 
divided, and thus many wlio detest slavery, do not sym- 
pathize with the Nor til in their effort to restore the 
Union. It is generally considered that this effort is 
hopeless, and that the blood and treasure expended in it 
are absolutely wasted. Thus the sympathy felt with the 
North so far as the North is opposed to slavery, is 
checked in its expression by disapproval of a war so 
sanguinary, yet so unlikely to lead to any equivalent 
result. It has been supposed that the North has hitlierto 
been fiQ:htinA' for the Union as it was. But bv that 
Union, slavery was guaranteed in the States wliere it 
already existed, and fugitives were sent back to their 
incensed owners. Not because they are indifferent about 
slavery, but because they so deeply abhor it ; many in 
this country liave no sympathy with the North in a strug- 
gle, the issue of which, if they succeed, will in their 



THE A.AIEUICAN TTAR. 35 

Opinion, rivet more tightly the fetters of the slave, and 
render his escape more difiicult than ever. They there- 
fore wish the South to become a separate Confederation 
in order that slavery may cease to liave the entire power 
of the Union to prop it up, and that slaves may the more 
easily escape by the land of freedom being brought so 
much nearer to them. 

But this tendency to favor tlie final separation of the 
southern States will be checked as the true nature of 
the quarrel is better understood. The South are strug- 
gling not about tariffs, not to resist tyranny, not from a 
noble desire for self-government, but to preserve and 
extend slavery. We have seen by their own confession, 
that the maintenance of the Union as it was, would be 
the destruction of the system. It must spread or die. 
We have seen how, after years of struggle, the North 
finally said to the South : " Hitherto shall thou come 
but no farther," and how, by such restraint of slavery 
they designed its final extinction. Though when the 
war first broke out the avowed purpose was to restore 
the Union as it was, this is no longer the case. We 
have seen how, since the secession of the South, great 
advances liave been already made towards emancipation. 
Tf the Soutli is brought back, it will be no longer as an 
arrogant dictator, but humbled, crippled, impotent to 
carry out its evil purposes. After the first of January 
its slaves will be legally free, and then iis restoration 
will secure a vast tei'^itory where the negro race, already 



36 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

domiciled, will cultivate the soil as free-laborers, their 
liberty guaranteed by the whole power of tlie Union. 
But if the South become a separate nation, they do so 
avowedly to perpetuate and indefinitely extend all the 
horrors of slavery. 

The Westminster Quarterly Revieio of this month 
says, " Should these conspirators succeed in making good 
their independence, and possessing themselves of a part 
of the territories, being those which are in immediate 
contact with Mexico, nothing is to be expected but the 
spread of the institution by conquest (unless prevented 
by some European power) over that vast country and 
ultimately over all Spanish America, and if circumstan- 
ces permit, the conquest and annexation of the West 
Indies ; while so vast an extension of the field for the 
employment of slaves would raise up a demand for more, 
which would in all probability lead to that reopening of- 
the African slave-trade, the legitimacy and necessity of 
which have long been publicly asserted by many organs 
of the South. Such are the issues to humanity wliich 
are at stake in tlie present contest between free and 
slave-holding America ; and such is the cause to which a 
majority of Englisli writers, and of Englishmen who 
have the ear of tlie public, have given the support of 
their sympathies." 

But 1 repeat, the heart of England beats true to lib- 
erty. It is impossible she should sympathize with Slav- 
ery. It is impossible therefore, when the question is 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 37 

clearly imderstood, that she can sympathize with this 
Southern conspiracy against humanity. An excellent 
tract, " Federals and Confederates/' published by Caud- 
welL 335 Strand, says : " In a war of law against licence, 
of freedom against slavery, shame upon Christain Britain 
if she waver in her choice. '^ The New York Christian 
Advocate, quoted in that tract, asks — " How can civilized 
nations, and particularly Great Britain, answer to God 
and their consciences for withholding their sympathy 
from us in this struggle ? '' Count Cavour, in a despatch 
at the outbreak of tlie war, wrote to the Italian minister 
at Washington : " This reserve will not prevent us from 
manifesting our sympatliies for the triumph of the North- 
ern cause, for their cause is the cause not only of consti- 
tutional liberty, but of all liumanity. Christian Europe 
cannot wish success to a party which bears on its stand- 
ard the preservation and extension of slavery.'^ Is Italy 
just emancipated, thus to pour out her ungrudging sym- 
pathy, and England, during so many centuries the chosen 
asylum of liberty, to appear indifferent ? 

We lament that the negro, though free in the North, is 
deprived of the rights of citizenship, and is often treated, 
even when learned and refined, as socially inferior to the 
white man, even when ignorant and vulgar. Let us hope 
for better days — but meanwhile let us not confound the 
condition of the Northern free men with that of the 
Southern slave. Are those Northern negroes themselves 
willing to go South ? Do fugitive slaves ever voluntarily 



38 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

return? They are witnesses that tliougli their condition 
is not what it should be, it is infinitely superior to what 
it was. But we must not forget that Americans may 
retort on us and say that by the preference given in our 
markets to siave-grovrn cotton we have largely contrib- 
uted to prop up the system. I know you feel sore at the 
insults America has offered to our government, and the 
hostile threats she has often uttered. But let us bear in 
mind that those insults were chiefly given wlien the South- 
erners were in power. On them therefore, not on the 
North, let our displeasure rest. You do not like the 
brag of some Americans wlio come over here. But the 
conduct and language of individuals must not be taken 
as a fair representation of a whole people. Many Eng- 
lishmen who travel are rude and haughty, but we do not 
wish to be judged by such specimens. Some Americans 
have recently uttered very violent sentiments in reference 
to us, and the language of some of their journals is most 
insulting and unjust. But are ice willing that the foolish 
utterances of some of our public men shall be taken to be 
those of the whole nation ? Have the Americans notliing 
to complain of in the tone of some of oz/r newspapers ? 
On the otlier hand have they never sliown kind sympathy 
towards ourselves? Witness the generous hospitality 
with wliicli they welcome our public men — the excitement 
of deliglit with wliicli they liailed the " Great Eastern'^ 
— the enthusiastic homage they paid to our Prince of 
Wales, who was insulted in the Soutlicrn capital alone. 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 39 

Be sure that the heart of the great masses of the people 
in the Free States beats in sympathy with the heart of 
the people here. 

Why are we asked to sympathize with the South? 
Because they are supposed to possess qualities which 
England must always admire. They are so high-minded 
a race, uncontaminated by what is mercenary and sordid ! 
Yes — one portion of them breeding human beings as you 
breed cattle, which the other portion buy for using up in 
the plantations. They are so courteous ! Yes — and at 
the public mart, without a blush examine the teeth and 
handle the muscles of men and women as you feel a hor^^Cj 
and unmoyed by tears, wrench the wife from the hus- 
band's folded arms, the child from the mother's last em- 
brace. They boast of ancestry ! Yes — but what of 
brothers, sisters, children ? They are so generous ! Yes 
— and brand with serfdom their own offspring, and bar- 
ter them away for gold. They are so braye ! But braye- 
ry neyer bullies and cannot be cruel : yet they threaten 
and strike the unarmed, unresisting, and crouching sup- 
plicant ; and would torture eyen to the death any slaye 
who should persist in claiming to be treated as a man 
and not a chattel. They are so chiyalrous ! Yes — and 
scourge the naked, quiycring, bleeding backs of shrieking 
maidens who resent the dishonor of their lustful adyances. 
They fight for freedom and independence ! Yes — free- 
dom to enslaye others, and independence of control in 
practising and extending the area of these abominations. 



40 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

If we refuse our sympathy to the North, do you suppose 
we shall ever secure, even if we were sufficiently like 
themselves to desire it, the sympathy of these Southern- 
ers ? While we continue to be Britons, and therefore 
neither slaves, nor, what is worse, slavemasters, is it pos- 
sible that they can ever love us ? For political ends they 
may at present court our favor. They want to have the 
blockade broken, to sell their cotton, to be recognized as 
a Confederacy. But do tliey not know that England de- 
tests and abhors the system whicli they regard as essen- 
tial to their existence, the " Corner Stone" of their social 
fabric ? Let them come here and publicly proclaim their 
principles ! Let them come with their iron chains, and 
bull-hide scourges, and well trained blood-hounds, and 
witli these illustrations of their system advocate their 
hellish doctrines on our soil sacred to Freedom ! We 
■would not do as Southern mobs do to any one who whis- 
pers a word about emancipation. No — they should have 
full liberty to utter their blasphemies — so that they might 
the more discover how impossible it would be, in any 
assembly of the people, to obtain any response to their 
diabolic teaching but that of disgust and execration. 
We cannot liave sympathy with impenitent slavers. We 
cannot admit them to our holy sacraments, for they are 
violating every law of humanity, and trampling on the 
Gospel they have the audacity to profess. We dare not 
bid them God speed. We cannot sit at tlie same table 
with them. W^e shrink from receiving them into our 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 41 

houses. Our hand is polluted by grasping theirs. We 
loathe them as the representatives of the concentration 
of all villainies. They know it. Can there ever be alli- 
ance between us ? Can there ever be real sympathy ? 
Impossible ! England may alienate the North — she can 
never embrace the South ! 

Think again what Slavery is in America. Four mil- 
lions of negroes are held as mere chattels. It is a terri- 
ble power to give one man over another. Knowing what 
human nature is, we know how such power may be abused. 
We need no evidence to prove the actual occurrence of 
any conceivable atrocity. Slaves are held by men of all 
temperaments. There are slavemasters originally of a 
kind and gentle disposition. There are others malignant, 
cruel, and of ungovernable temper. Imagine a slave in 
the hands of such a master ! We are told that people 
will take care of their own property from self-interest. 
But we have heard of men stabbing their own valuable 
horses, and driving them to death. How much more may 
the fury of passion be aroused when the victim of it has 
a tongue which can speak and an eye that can flash its 
remonstrances ! No key to " Uncle Tom's Cabin" was 
needed to prove that the cruelties narrated have actually 
occurred. 

It is said that by extracting reports of assaults and 
murders from our newspapers, it would be possible to 
convey a very horrible but false notion of our social sys- 
tem. But these offences are opposed to and punished by 



42 . THE AMERICAN WAR. 

the law of England : the cruelties of slavery are protect- 
ed by the law of the South. We publish these crimes far 
and wide that they may be punislied and execrated : the 
South conceal from other nations the atrocities of their 
system, so that what we hear is nothing compared with 
wdiat is practised. We are told that the condition of 
many working men in England is worse than that of the 
slaves ; and that it is a harder lot to toil in a dark coal 
mine than in a sunny cotton field. Insulting to British 
workmen is such sophistry ! Would not every one of 
you rather, as a free-man, spend all your days in dark- 
ness, dirt and danger, than with a palace as your prison, 
and pampered with luxury, like a slave, body and mind 
enthralled, and subject to every caprice of the fellow-man 
who claims you as he does his horse or his dog ? 

We are told that all labor is compulsory, and that if 
the negro, able to subsist with little toil, needs the com- 
pulsion of the whip, so in England men have the compul- 
sion of hunger. But who does not feel that such an ar- 
gument is a contemptible fallacy ? To work to live is a 
Divine law. Our own nature prompts such industry. 
Work so done is work done voluntarily — no other will 
than our own compels it — we are free. But if, willing to 
incur the natural consequences, I refuse to work, and then 
ani driven to my task through terror of tlie whi]i and for 
another's benefit, tlien my work is totally changed in its 
cliaracter. It is false that the negro will only thus la- 
bor. The davc will not. Why should he, when his mas- 



THE AMElilCAN WAP. 43 

ter reaps all the fruit ? But let him be sure of receiving 
and retaining a fair remuneration, and all experience 
proves that he will labor as cheerfully as others. But if 
not, who has a right to compel him ? Are all men to be 
forced to labor who will not labor of their own accord ? 
Then the rule will apply to the white man as well as to 
the black. Then all whose limited wants or acquired 
property enable them to subsist with little or no toil, are 
to be compelled as slaves to do for others what they have 
no incentive to do for themselves ! If some of you save 
money enough to give up work, on this principle you must 
be compelled to w^ork on ! If you can provide for all 
your wants by working six hours a day, you must be 
compelled, for the benefit of others, to work twelve ! See 
how these doctrines of slavery threaten the laborer all 
over the world ! 

They say the mind of the negro cannot be raised to 
the level of the white man. But the negro slave is al- 
lowed no opportunity of mental improvement. It is a 
crime in the eye of the law to teach him to read or w^rite ! 
If his mind were so very weak, would there be such fear 
lest by education he should become unfit for slavery? 
It is false. Many negroes are far more intelligent than 
many whites. The slaves in the South, nobly patient, are 
far superior morally to the masters who oppress, rob and 
torture them. But if not, does mental superiority give a 
claim to hold others in bondage ? Then the aristocracy 
in all lands, whose wealth and leisure enable them to at- 



44 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

tain a higher mental cultivation, have a right to enslave 
the masses of the people. See how your interests are 
involved in this question ! 

Mr. Ludlow, in his "Sketch of the United States," 
which has been very useful to me in preparing this lec- 
ture, says — " The safety of the world demands that these 
dangerous monomaniacs, however estimable they may be 
in private life, should be put down, and the sooner the 
better. Why, you may ask me, for the interests of the 
world? Because the principles put forth threaten the 
freedom of the working classes throughout tlie world. 
Listen to Mr. Cobb : — " There is, perhaps, no solution of 
the great problem of reconciling the interests of the 
labor and capital, so as to protect each from the en- 
croachments and oppressions of the other, so simple and 
effective as negro slavery. By maldng the laborer him- 
self capital^ the conflict cecises, and the interests become 
identicalJ^ Is there a working man here, or anywhere, 
whose freedom is not involved by such a doctrine ? Are 
you prepared to be made " capital " that the problem of 
reconciling labor and capital be solved ? Is it not yoiir 
cause, then, that the North is fighting at this moment ? 
No, — it is not a war between black and white which is 
being waged beyond the Atlantic, it is the war, the world- 
okl war between freedom and tyranny, between God and 
the devil. For the sake of all mankind, once more, these 
dangerous Southern lunatics must be put down. 

They are called lunatics in this passage because many 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 45 

of them seem to have persuaded themselves that their 
cause is that of humanity and God ! The slave owner 
of the present day maintains that slavery is commanded 
by the Bible, and is ready to declare with ex-governor 
Hammond, of South Carolina, that slavery is an Eden, 
and that Satan enters it " in the shape of an Abolition- 
ist." 

Before, then, you express sympathy with the South, 
ponder carefully for what it is that, with lunatic frenzy, 
they are now in arms. They are fighting for the right 
to regard a fellow human creature as a mere chattel — to 
appropriate all the produce of his labor — to deny him 
education — to punish any who tries to teach him — to 
buy and sell him — to separate husband from wife, parent 
from child — to deny the marriage relation altogether — 
to accept no evidence from a negro in a court of justice 
— to punish and torture him at will — to insult woman's 
honor without redress— for this the Soutli is fighting. 
They are fighting for the privilege of perpetrating un- 
checked, all the cruelties which characterize their sys- 
tem, and which were never more generally practised than 
at present. Mr. Olmstead, in his work on "' Slavery in 
the South," says that he was told that rich men bid for 
the overseer who can make the most cotton, and never 
ask how many niggers they kill. An overseer, superior 
to most of his class, said to him, " Why, sir, I would not 
mind killing a nigger more than I would a dog." In the 
South, when a negro connnits an offence for which the 



46 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

law would punish him, cases sometimes happen when the 
whites, anticipating tlie law, roast him to death before a 
slow hre. 

On behalf of such a cause, shall any sympathy be felt 
in the laud of Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and Buxton — 
in the land every pebble, every grain of sand of whose 
shore testifies its abhorrence of slavery in the fact that 
the moment the captive touches it he is free ? We never 
can wish to recognize a government whose programme to 
the world, whose motto and banner, whose purpose and 
boast, is the upholding of a system which turns earth 
into hell wherever it prevails. Our recognition of bel- 
ligerent rights was merely admitting the fact of war, a 
step required for the maintenance of perfect neutrality. 
Both North and South misjudged us if they inferred from 
it more than this. It is well that Mr. Gladstone has ex- 
plained that his hasty statement that Jefferson Davis had 
made a great nation, meant merely his private opinion 
that the South would never be re-united to the North. 
Not even his high character and commanding eloquence 
would win assent from the people, were lie to urge the 
recognition of the slave-confederacy by our country. 
The nobly patient workmen of Lancashire and Yorkshire 
will starve rather tlian utter a word in favor of slavery. 
The workmen of England will universally advocate the 
cause of the workmen in America — and as their sympa- 
thies have unmistakeably l)ocn manifested in favor of 
Hungary, Venice and Rome, so they will not refuse their 



THE AMERICAN WAR. 47 

compassion for tlie negro slave, far more cruelly oppress- 
ed. Tliey wiio have exulted at the achievements of 
Garibaldi and the liberation of Sicily from the yoke of 
the Bom^bon, will not grudge their shout of encourage- 
ment to those who on many a bloody field are striving to 
put down the most terrible conspiracy against freedom 
the world has ever witnessed. 

America is now undergoing severe discipline. It is 
not my habit to link suffering with sin, and trace a divine 
judgment in every calamity. But we must be blind if 
we do not see how, by the operation of natural causes, 
God is punishing, chiefly the South as the perpetrator of 
the wickedness, but also the North for long and guilty 
connivance. There has been wicked compromise. To 
uphold a constitution of man's devising God's laws have 
been set at naught. Slavery has been sanctioned and 
guaranteed in order to preserve the Union, and now by 
that very slavery the Union is now broken up. There 
must be no compromise in duty. This is the lesson 
sternly taught by the war. But let England sympathize 
with and pray for America. They beyond the sea are 
our brethren and kinsmen. They read the same Bible, 
and sing the same hymns, and reverence the same holy 
and heroic names. Their forefathers lie buried in our 
ancient church-yards. Multitudes among them are Brit- 
ish-born. Many have but recently exchanged an English 
for an American hom.e. Their missionaries with our own, 
go forth throughout the world to preach the gospel of 



48 THE AMERICAN WAR. 

universal freedom. We must not, we cannot be alienated 
from one another. Our mutual mistakes will soon be 
corrected. Meanwhile, let Christian congregations send 
over to them assurances of sympathy. Let the voice of 
the people be heard in public meetings throughout the 
land. Especially let prayers ascend to the Prince of 
Peace — the great Liberator of humanity — that the sword 
may soon be sheathed and the fetter broken — that Ame- 
rica may come forth from the furnace seven times puri- 
fied — that the eldest daughter of Britain, cleansed from 
the foul spot, which, indeed, she derived from her mother, 
may emerge from this cloud of trial the admiration of 
the world — that the parent, not jealous of, but rejoicing 
in, the growth of the child, and without any airs of arro- 
gant superiority ; that the child, with no childisli wilful- 
ness or fretfulness — that thus mother and child, or, if 
they prefer it, the elder and younger born daughters of 
Freedom, may go forth hand in hand diffusing among the 
nations the blessings of civilization, peace, liberty and 
religion ; and, foremost amongst the ministering servants 
of the Lord Jesus Christ hasten on the fulfillment of the 
grand old prophecy, which tells of a golden age when 
" a King shall reign in righteousness, who shall judge 
the poor of the people, and break in pieces the oppressor, 
and deliver the needy when he crieth, and him tliat hath 
no helper, in Avhose day the righteous shall flourish, and 
abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." 



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